Assembling my army...

Given that I plan to flesh out my battle force with detail and description, I've figured that one of my first tasks must be to come up with a standard battle list – an 'all comers' force that I can use for a variety of purposes. (There is another reason for this; another of my New Year's Resolutions is to 'go on the road' more for battles, and if I have a standardized force then I can have it ready to transport without any messing around...) One of the great challenges of 40k is to come up with a force that is competitive against any army, but my primary concern was an army that was fun, and followed the background properly.

Given that my background details came from Space Crusade, I took a look at the components. It boiled down to three Tactical Squads, three Scouts Squads, and three Tarantulas. Immediately I resolved that my usual force would have to include these elements; that's a pretty good basis for a battle force in any case. I decided to optimize my force at 1,500 points, my local meta usually fights at this size, and going for this points level seemed logical. So – I had my troops, essentially.

At this point I then looked at my list to see what I wanted to take; this boiled down to getting out my favourite models, and looking over my favourite parts of the army list. I never think that a list is truly complete without a Captain; regardless of the 'fluff', a Space Marine force needs a leader, so that was my primary HQ, and a Librarian is always fun. I've been a sucker for psychic powers since Dark Millenium. There had to be an Inquisitor, also...and if he wasn't also a psyker, well, I was missing a trick. At this stage I really wanted a Techmarine...so he went onto the table as well. This is a bit of a controversial choice, I know, but damn it, I love the model!

I wanted some elements of heavy support, of course. Now, I've been a fan of Devastator Squads even when they were far too expensive in 5^th Edition; today I consider them a must-buy. I went with a load-out of three missile launchers and a plasma cannon. The Sergeant will give the Plasma Cannon a ballistic skill of five with his auspex, and the Inquisitor will usually be providing the Devastators with a Divination-based re-roll, which seemed to nicely mitigate the disaster of 'Gets Hot'. For extra boom, I took a Whirlwind – and added a Storm Bolter to it for safety. I've used this figure a lot, and it's been attacked at close range often enough that a Storm Bolter would have been handy, not to mention the disaster that 'weapon destroyed' otherwise represents.

Back to the troops, which needed transport. Rhinos are of course the usual stand-by here, but having used them an awful lot, I wasn't convinced. I didn't want to transport everything into battle in any case; I wanted to split into combat squads, and an idea was evolving. Four Power Armour squads – four characters. Each squad could be led by a character to serve as bodyguard, and to give each one extra muscle. Heavy Weapons teams at the rear to provide fire support and hold objectives, Attack teams at the forefront to secure objectives in the mid- to late-game. The Tarantulas gave me the idea – Razorbacks. I rationalized that my Techmarine had probably attached the Tarantulas to Rhinos for extra mobility at some point! I wanted one Veteran Sergeant, and gave him a Power Axe; the others I left as they were, though one of them got a Plasma Pistol for extra punch. For heavy weapons, I went with two Missile Launchers and a Heavy Bolter, and for special I took a Plasma Gun, a Meltagun and a Flamer, considering that a reasonable mix.

Scouts came next. I'm a traditionalist with Scouts; I don't like the 'Sniper' variant, probably because I've never had any luck with them! Land Speeder Storms can be good, but used singly have a tendency to die gloriously. Looking at the old loadouts, it seemed to be Combat Knifes, Bolt Pistols, Bolters, and Heavy Bolters. Perfect; I had to pick up a couple more squads, but it was worth it. I ended up with two 'Assault' Scout Squads with Combat Knives and Bolt Pistols, and one 'Tactical' Scout Squad with Bolters and a Heavy Bolter. I can infiltrate those ahead of my battle force to cause nice surprises to my enemies...

That was pretty much it! No tanks, not really, just APCs, but a character-heavy force was exactly what I was looking for. I can make a lot of detail out of these – there are five characters I can go to town on, counting the Veteran Sergeant, and seven squads to detail. In addition – I think this is a pretty decent, balanced force, with a good amount of anti-armour and anti-squad heavy weapons, decent mobility, and potentially nine scoring units. That's going to be a handful to take down in a battle...I just hope it is enough to do the job! Naturally, this could well be subject to tweaks and alterations...but here is my fifteen-hundred point battleforce.

Headquarters

Captain (Power Sword, Artificer Armour)

Librarian (Force Sword, Psychic Hood)

Inquisitor (Psyker, Power Armour, Force Sword)

Techmarine (Servo-Arm)

Troops

Tactical Squad (Veteran Sergeant, Power Axe, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun, Razorback )

Tactical Squad (Flamer, Missile Launcher, Razorback)

Tactical Squad (Plasma Pistol, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter, Razorback)

Scout Squad (Combat Knife, Bolt Pistol)

Scout Squad (Combat Knife, Bolt Pistol)

Scout Squad (Bolter, Heavy Bolter)

Heavy Support

Devastator Squad (Missile Launcher x3, Plasma Cannon)

Whirlwind (Whirlwind Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter)  

Relaunch...

Well, welcome to the relaunch of my Warhammer 40,000 blog, a collection of battle reports, ponderings, musings, reviews and comments about Warhammer 40k. I'm hoping to be posting on this blog at least semi-regularly, certainly after every game; one of the resolutions I have made for 2014 (and yes, I know that I am writing this in 2013) is to not only play 40k more regularly, but also to keep up my blogs a lot better than I did this year. The fact that my posting in 2013 represented a substantial improvement over the last few years is more of a testament to my failures before!

Primarily, I'm an Ultramarines player. I have an Ork army, and as a result of the recent Codex: Inquisition sourcebook, I have an Inquisitor as well, but most of the time I play Space Marines, and God was the new codex an extremely welcome one! I already don't know what I would do without it, and the Ultramarine Tactics have been key in several battles. Something I have toyed with in the past – and now mean to seriously do – is to come up with an extended narrative for my army. I'd like to be in a position to properly remember past glories, and put them into some sort of context.

Recently, I was listening to a few Overlords podcasts where there was some interesting discussion about narrative army lists, and I think we're going to be doing a lot more along those lines in the year to come – in any rate, I mean to – and so I decided to come up with a theme for my army. This is one I have played with, one that goes right back to my origins in 40k – Space Crusade! And its expansions, and Advanced Space Crusade. This already gives me an interesting backstory that I can explore in future posts, giving a 'past' to my battleforce. I already know that they need to be something a bit exceptional – Renegade Ultramarines. If only because half the time I am fighting other Chapters...

I fought a pair of battles this weekend that have really kicked things off. Both of them were with the same opponent, playing essentially the same army, and had all of this in mind. I wanted to field-test Codex: Inquisition (I've loved the idea of Imperial Agents sub-lists since the Black Codex, and nothing has changed for me) and he was interested in an all-Terminator force – as well as field-testing the new Inquisitors! My list consisted of a Librarian, Inquisitor, pair of Tactical Squads in Razorbacks, Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon, and a Devastator Squad. A thousand points a side; I was facing a Dreadknight, fifteen Terminators, a Vindicare Assassin and another Inqusitor.

Already we have an interesting narrative here, and the game really gave us a basis to work on. Two Inquisitors fighting it out does not happen every day. Every month, perhaps, but not every day. Given that one had Ultramarines and one had Grey Knights, it was apparent quite early on that I was not on the side of orthodoxy. I haven't gone into any detail about why my force has decided to go rogue, but I think I can find some interesting titbits in my chosen source material.

Tactically, I realized right at the start that I had to knock out as many Terminators as possible. If they got into close combat in any sort of numbers, I was finished. My opponent began to march across the battlefield, but made what I considered a tactical error; he chose to shoot instead of run in the Shooting Phase. His storm bolters made almost no impact, and it gave me a critical extra round to attack. Both of my Psykers were using the Primaris Powers of Divination and Telepathy; my Inquisitor was basically just sitting with the Devastators while the Librarian's goal was to survive long enough to use his Psychic Scream. The only real threat was the Assassin...but he turned out to be as effective as throwing rocks at the Librarian. Some of the Terminators actually made it, but by the time one reached my deployment zone, he was the only one left. The game ended with one Terminator in my deployment zone, one running away next to the Inquisitor. The Dreadknight had been killed by the Scream – one look at my Librarian had evidently been enough!

I lost, two points to none. I'd not had a chance to claim any objectives, and my opponent had managed First Blood and Linebreaker. I rather think I had a moral victory here. Nevertheless, all part of the narrative, and we decided that 'victory' in this case meant that he had been able to get word of the survival of my Inquisitor – for it was apparent he was the source of all the trouble – back to Grey Knights Command, who promptly dispatched a second, almost identical force. We left the terrain as it was, and kept the same sides of the table for the battle, reasoning that my forces had probably dug in. Indeed, I hardly had to move any of my forces, just put the casualties back onto the table, though I did make a few tweaks.

This battle was a total whitewash. For the Ultramarines. One Tactical Combat Squad – with bolters, a plasma gun, and a plasma cannon – killed four Terminators (for the loss of the plasma cannon Marine) – and that rather set the tone. The only serious threat to reach my side of the table was the Dreadknight, and here we really had an epic. I'd managed to scream two Wounds from him the round before his charge, and a lascannon had taken another one. With no other choice – and my enlarged Tactical blob by far the largest thing left on the table, he charged. I fired everything, all the bolters, missile launchers, everything in overwatch. Nothing had any effect. All that was left was my Inquisitor with his bolt pistol. I rolled a six to hit, a six to wound, and my opponent rolled a one for his save.

Yes, the Dreadknight was taken down by my Inquisitor with a Bolt Pistol. This is the stuff of which legends are made, and why I keep coming back to 40k.

WAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

I’ve said my primary focus is based around the Ultramarines, and that is perfectly true; I reckon I’ve probably got twice as many points of Ultramarines than I have Orks. My Ork army was in one sense a bit of a lucky shot; the bulk of it was from a single eBay auction that was a bucket of Boyz, Nobz, Warbosses and Deffkoptas, with some more supplemental bits and pieces added on since then to give a bit of flavour/survivability. I think the standard for this force is realistically something along the lines of 1,500 points as I have it now, and at the moment it is far from optimised; it’s based around the simple, traditional Orky taktik of charging hell-for-leather towards the enemy and hoping to survive the process! I had a small Ork force the first time around, led by old Thraka himself. (Everyone did. For years that was the only Ork Warboss figure that was readily available, it seemed…)

After some experimentation, the core of my army is three big mobs of Slugga Boyz, each naturally led by a Nob, with between twenty and thirty in each mob. I’ve experimented with Big Shootas, and had rather leaned towards taking them out…but then when I did, I found that I really missed them, so I think I’m going to take the maximum allotment in future, just for the sound of the dakka. An Ork Warband wouldn’t be a Warband without some Grots, so I have a squad of twenty-five Gretchin with a trio of Runtherdz – nice figures, I really like them, and they’ve done some fun things in combat. Not particularly useful things, but definitely fun, even if I can just use them as a screen for my Boyz. Might get a few more at some point.

For heavier support, I have a pair of Looted Wagons. Now – I know that they aren’t optimal, but I love the models, and…hell, its Orks, they don’t have to make sense, do they? One of them is a modified Leman Russ, the other a modified open-topped Rhino. Both of them look great on the battlefield. The latter is the transport for a squad I have yet to deploy; a ten-strong Nobz mob that includes a Painboy. Wouldn’t be a warband without a Painboy, Runtherd and Mekboy…so naturally I have a Mekboy as well. A nice one equipped with a Burna – the idea is basically to shove him in with the Nobz…who of course will ultimately be led by the Warboss, old Warboss ‘Aig himself (with the ‘march into fire across the battlefield strategy, who else could I use). Hopefully this will tear the enemy into nice pieces.

For mobility, I have eschewed the traditional stand-by of the Orks, the Warbike, and instead have three units – two squadrons of Deffkoptas which I have found excellent in battle, even if my accuracy with the Rokkits is legendarily poor, and another unit of Warbuggies to race alongside the Looted Rhino. (Not used these in battle yet – they were a Christmas present, and my battles since then have been with the Ultramarines.) Heavy support is provided by a Deff Dread – big shoota and burna, walking behind one of the Mobz, and a Killa Kan – I rather have the idea that that might hang around with a Grot Mob if I find myself holding an objective, though as yet I haven’t used it as such.

Thus far…this army doesn’t have a great win/loss record. In fact, it’s only victory was against Grey Knights! The highlight there was a Strike Squad being scared off the battlefield by a mob of Orks that didn’t even have to charge them – their pre-attack volley of popgun shots did the job! Almost managed a tabling in that battle, though to be fair there weren’t many Orks left on the table at the end of the battle either. The thing is this – my instinct is that the Ork Codex for 6^th, which looks as if it is coming sometime this year, will bring back what makes the Orks truly great, the close-combat effectiveness. It really feels odd that the best way to take them is as a ‘shooty’ army. Not when they ought to be charging the enemy! WAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

Ponderings and Musings...

Naturally, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about the tournament and my army's performance over the last few days. My original plan was quite simple; to get my army forward into optimum firing range, and then blast the hell out of it, while using my close combat forces to deal with anything particularly heavy. The plan only really worked once - against the Tyranids. It might have worked against the Tau, but with my Rhinos wiped out on the wrong side of the battlefield, there's no way to really know!

I actually think that there is nothing wrong with this as a basic strategy. It must be faced that Space Marines are not close combat monsters. They will survive in close combat, definitely – the battle with the Tyranids is proof enough of that – but their best weapon is their humble bolter, and their best defence is their power armour. Taking out a squad of Space Marines is not an easy task, especially if they have the advantage of some line-of-sight cover.

I reckon that the key thing I am missing is sufficient heavy support. I only had four heavy weapons across the entire force, and that rather hurt. I probably should have taken that Predator after all...I suspect it would have had rather more of an impact than the Scouts ended up doing, though that was as much my placement as anything else. I still think that there is a key role for a Scout Squad in a force, but I don't think I'll be using the Land Speeder Storm as the delivery system. Too fragile, at least as things stand.

Definitely I need some more heavy support; it also has to be faced that the Command Squad did not have the impact on the battle that I had hoped. So even in a 1k force, I have points to play with. I need the third Rhino to get my characters into battle...(the Techmarine, as usual, justified his points and then some, but he does need transport) and having some marines to accompany them as human shields/fire support is not a bad thing...so I think a Devastator Squad might be the idea.

Yes, they are expensive, I know that much. But for 255 points, I get another ten-man squad with a Rhino and four Missile Launchers. I can put the Sergeant and four bolter marines with the Techmarine and the HQ, and leave the other unit standing at the back providing heavy support. A single bolter marine can provide, well, something for the enemy to hit first, realistically. I can also use the Techmarine to improve their cover as well, as a nice bonus.

On the subject of HQ...I really want to take the Captain, but this new configuration just doesn't have the points, so I think I'm going to switch down to the Librarian. At close range his powers should have a lot more bite to them, and the Techmarine is perfectly capable of providing a nice hard close-combat beast – the Librarian isn't exactly shabby on this score, either. The 1k list now looks like this:

• Librarian (Force Sword)
• Techmarine (Servo-Harness)
• Tactical Squad (Flamer, Missile Launcher, Rhino)
• Tactical Squad (Flamer, Multi-Melta, Rhino)
• Devastator Squad (Missile Launcher x 4, Rhino)
• Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon, Lascannon)

That leaves me with forty points for additional wargear; probably a Servitor for the Techmarine, Melta Bombs for the three Sergeants, and maybe a Plasma Pistol for the D-Squad Sergeant, to give him a little extra close range punch. Those last points I am still pondering, though. As for pumping this up to a 1.5k list, that will be for a future post; it's going to be a few weeks before I have another 1.5k battle.

Tournament Report

Well…that went probably about as well as could be expected! To cut to the chase, I ended up placing third…the same as last time! The winner was Greg, with his nigh-on unstoppable Tau force, with Pete coming second with the Dark Eldar and after my Ultramarines, Mark with the Tyranids. I can honestly say that all of the battles were very close this time – and in an unplanned yet truly proper fashion, the final two battles were two contesting first place and two contesting third.

Think we have enough cover?

My first battle was against the Tau; I actually was fairly confident here going in, thinking I had a decent chance. I had won the roll and elected to deploy and move first; my plan was to race ahead and grab the two objectives on Greg’s end of the table with my Tactical Squads, picking off his Warlord and troop units and using my Command Squad to go after his heavier stuff. This plan collapsed when Greg stole the initiative…and all of a sudden my Rhinos looked extremely vulnerable. With three resounding pops, not only did Greg have first blood, but more importantly, my forces were stuck on the wrong side of the battlefield. 

Get 'em!

From that point I was really playing catch-up; the Tau had their range advantage, and I struggled to get to grips with the enemy. Where one squad did get into action it did very well – one of my Tactical Squads on consecutive turns routed a unit of Stealth Suits, routed the Warlord and wiped out a squad of flanking Kroot, but none of my other units did anything significant. My Storm deep-striked into enemy territory and got blown away in a round of shooting. Didn’t even get a shot. Game ended on Turn 4 – which prevented me from actually being tabled. (To make sure we got the three games in, we were playing games of 4-6 turns length instead of 5-7.)

The Thin Orange Line

The second battle was against the Dark Eldar, and this was a lot closer. My forces got across the table and managed to deploy, though one of the Rhinos – containing my Melta Tactical Squad – was blown up during the first turn. As I expected, Pete’s Jetbikes proved decisive, and I was never really able to do much damage to them. By about Turn 2, we’d swapped sides of the battlefield, which was highly amusing, and confusing! I evolved the plan of grabbing the objective on the far side of the battlefield, and preventing Pete from taking the other objective my using all my mobile forces to deny it. That would have given me a 3-2 win…but it wasn’t to be. By Turn 5 both my Tactical Squads were on the verge of death, one Sergeant fighting a heroic last stand while a couple of bolter marines were standing off against the jet bikes…but those jet bikes really denied me a win. I needed to break them, get them off the table…and I failed to do so. I managed to avoid tabling again – we ended on Turn 6. (Technically Pete still had his Turn 6 to go, but we collectively decided that there was no chance of a tabling, and we wanted to proceed to the next game.

Mobile Tin-Openers of Doom

Then came my win! Albeit a slightly controversial one. I was playing against the Tyranids on this one, and Mark decided to simply go for the Kill Points. He whacked my Rhinos first, getting three easy points, but I was taking out his forces about as quickly. His Genestealers were wiped out by a single Tactical Squad, no problem, and I managed to take out his Trygons and Zoanthrope in quick succession. Mistake one – I erroneously thought that Krak grenades were AP 3, where of course they are AP 4. That did make a difference, obviously…but we did agree that realistically, I’d probably done enough overspill that they would likely have died anyway. Mistake two was Mark’s. He’d made his Hive Tyrant flying, and opted to fly him off the table back into reserves. The idea was that I wouldn’t be able to kill him; by his calculations, that gave him the game 5-4 in VPs when it ended on Turn 4. I then pointed out that any figures off the board counted as destroyed for the purposes of the mission…and thereforce a fifth unit was dead – so 5-5 – and the Warlord was dead…so 6-5, giving me the game. Fifteen minutes of flicking through the rulebook later, and this interpretation was deemed quite correct…so I got the win, 6-5. Interestingly – Mark had very, very close games in the first two battles, though the third was a steamroller for me. All he killed were three Rhinos and a Servitor – not a single Marine died. (Another reason why the ‘Super Krak’ anomaly wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t getting my units anyway; I had a whole Tactical Squad doing very little in Turns 3 and 4 I could easily have employed in support.) Ironic that the game he came closest to winning was the game he did worst in!

Little bit of overkill...

I think that the first battle went sour when the initiative was stolen. Had I managed to get closer in, my Rhinos would still have died, but my Marines would all have been well in range, maybe even in rapid fire range…which would have made all the difference. The second battle I really needed to get those jetbikes! The third…well, I don’t think I’d do anything differently, but I suspect Mark will next time!

Ratings on my army to follow tomorrow, then I’m going to do some reviews of old White Dwarves, I think…

Army Lists

Dark Eldar Army

1 x Archon (Shadow field, blaster, venom blade)

7 x Wyches Hekatrix w/Venom Blade and Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Raider)

2 x 10 Warriors (Splinter Cannon, Blaster, Raider)

9 x Reaver Jetbikes (3 Blasters, Arena Champion w/Arena Blade)

1 x Ravager w/ Retro Jets

Tau Army

Shasel

6 x Stealth Suits

3 x Battle Crisis Suits (Flamer, Missile Pods)

12 x Fire Warriors

2 x Broadside including leader (3 shield drones)

10 x Kroot

Tyranid Army

1 x Hive Tyrant

1 x Zoanthrope

4 x Tyranid Warrior Brood

10 x Genestealer Brood

2 x Trygons

Ultramarines Army

1 x Captain

1 x Command Squad (Flamer, Flamer, Flamer, Apothecary, Champion, Rhino)

1 x Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)

2 x Tactical Squad w/Rhino (1 x Heavy Bolter/Flamer, 1 x Multi-Melta/Melta)

1 x Scout Squad (Combat Knife, Bolt Pistol, Land Speeder Storm)

1 x Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Ready for the fray!

So, below is the list I finally decided to go with for the tournament. The observant will notice that there are not many heavy weapons on this list; just two Multi-Meltas and two Heavy Bolters; I'm facing three armies that will probably have quite a bit of infantry, so I don't really consider this a major problem. If I do get any nasty surprises...well, that's what the two Multi-Meltas and the Meltagun are for! Fingers crossed.

The basic plan is fairly simple; the three Rhinos will start on the table, fully loaded, and close the range on the enemy as rapidly as possible; the idea being to get the units on board within 12 inches of the enemy battle line, and then open up with everything they've got. The enlarged Command Squad will close on the enemy with all speed, going for a nice tough unit – their job is to deal with anything I can't shoot to death. The Land Speeder Scouts and the Attack Bikes will be held in reserve, in order to fill any gaps in the line and secure objectives in the mid-to-late game.

Obviously, I don't intend anyone to be in the Rhinos by Turn 2...I can either use them as mobile scenery, try and do a bit of tank rushing...it's three more Storm Bolters and some Smoke Grenades at the very least, which provides a little more protection where required.

At this point...I reckon I have the best chance against the 'Nids with this list; they'll struggle to even get into my Rhinos. The Dark Eldar and Tau are likely to be the tougher nuts to crack...but I think this list is competitive given the armies I am set to face.

To battle!

Army List

• Captain (Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Artificer Armour)
• Command Squad (Champion, Apothecary, Flamer, Flamer, Flamer, Rhino)
• Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)
• Tactical Squad (Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Rhino)
• Tactical Squad (Multi-Melta, Meltagun, Rhino)
• Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols)
• Land Speeder Storm (Heavy Bolter)
• Attack Bike (Multi-Melta) 

Retrospective: Space Crusade

Well, this is where it all began. The first GW game I played (I suppose it was Milton Bradley, but come on, the rules were GW, the figures were Citadel, the background was Warhammer) was Hero Quest, but the second was Space Crusade. Both of them made a huge impact; I blame the first for my interest in role-playing games, but the second is the one that probably also made me a wargamer. Certainly I reckon that Warhammer 40k sings closest to my heart at the moment. I played the hell out of this when I was a kid; I got the chance to play it again last year when Greg unearthed it from under a pile of games, and you know what...it's as much fun now as it was then!

OK, the basics of the game. Two to four players, one of which is playing the 'Aliens', the remainder get to command a squad of Space Marines. The three Chapters on offer are Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Imperial Fists; as I recall I always played the Ultramarines, which is probably subconsciously why I ended up choosing that army when I returned to 40k last year. Well, that, and that there are metric tons of them on eBay, and my painting skills are, frankly, poor. Interesting here that the Dark Angels and Space Wolves are not represented, and probably telling of the time; the Imperial Fists were being heavily pushed in the books being written around then, and the Ultramarines and Blood Angels seemed to be the other Chapters heavily featured – the Crimson Fists already descending from their Rogue Trader prominence. (Now that's another post, and potentially another army at some point – the 'Forgotten Chapters' of Rogue Trader that faded from view...I have the vague notion of a 'Crusade' army comprising Flesh Eaters, Flesh Tearers, Blood Drinkers and Rainbow Warriors – at least the Silver Skulls and the Crimson Fists still get some love.)

The goal is simple – purge the aliens from a drifting Space Hulk, the aliens consisting of a healthy mix of Gretchin, Orks, Chaos Marines, Genestealers, 'Androids' (Necrons in all but name, years before that army first hit the table) and a mighty Dreadnought. A five-man unit of Space Marines from one to three of the Chapters is sent in to complete twelve missions, strung together into a loose campaign, complete with promotions and bonus equipment for winning, either for the Alien or the Marine player. The Marines get a wide range of equipment, ranging from standard Bolters to Missile Launchers, Autocannon and Plasma Guns – essentially a rather oddly-equipped Tactical Squad, by modern standards. Certainly wish a Tactical Squad could take an Autocannon today! There was a choice of weapons for the Sergeant, as well – Bolt Pistol and Axe, still a pretty decent load-out, Heavy Bolter, or Combi-Weapon. Well, two out of three legal ain't bad.

Like Space Hulk, you didn't see the Aliens until they got into line-of-sight; before this, they were represented by blips moved across the board. The board itself was pretty good – lots of rooms and corridors, with a three-dimensional element as well representing bulkheads to traverse through. What appeals the most to me today – especially given what I am planning to do – is that there is a rather nice potted background in the books; the rule book essentially has a comic built into it outlining a mission that goes completely wrong (which I am using as my background starting point, about which more next week).

There were two expansions for this, as well as a couple of articles in White Dwarf. The first expansion, Mission: Dreadnought, added an additional, larger Chaos Dreadnought to fight, as well as adding some additional weaponry for the Marines to deploy – a Lascannon, a 'Fusion Gun' (actually a Multi-Melta) and a Conversion Beamer. Again, very Rogue Trader! There were also three 'Tarantula' support weapons and gunners for them; twin-Lascannon mounts, which in the 2^nd Edition games I played were always a core part of my force! Rather regret that they have been taken out of the Codex...I rather miss them. Not that I could get any for love or money... This book had three scenarios in it, which basically just bolt on to the twelve from the core box.

The second was Eldar Attack, which provided a squad of ten Eldar – Dire Avengers, though with an awful lot of weapon options beside the normal Shuriken Catapult – and a few scenarios to run them through. Only one of them included the Space Marines, intended as the culmination of the campaign; this one always seemed rather more disjointed to me. I had both of them, naturally!

The two White Dwarf articles – from 134 and 145...one was useful, one less so. The first I found less so, in that it simply added rules for Scouts and Terminators to the mix. What you would do with them was not explored, no scenarios or anything were added. I presume this was for some back-compatibility with Advanced Space Crusade, perhaps. 145 was much better, and still reads well now, consisting of a five-part campaign involving tracking down a rogue Adeptus Mechanicus researcher that had been exposed to Genestealer gene-seeds. Again, this is primarily back-compatibility, this time I suspect with Space Hulk, but it works because you get something to do with these rules and figures.

Fundamentally – this remains a good introduction for the setting. On eBay they seem to go for small fortunes as a rule, but if you see one in a Charity Shop for less than £15, buy it! If it isn't complete figures-wise, those aren't hard to find these days. Well, you might have trouble getting an Autocannon or a Conversion Beamer...